Monthly Archives: June 2018

When Amy and Pilar launched the second annual restyling exchange I was very excited. Last year, my first restyling project was such a fun and challenging project that I didn’t hesitate signing on again.
What is the annual restyling exchange? In short, you get a garment from someone to restyle and you send a garment to someone to restyle! So I received this summer dress from Rebecca and restyled it into a kimono.

Restyling a summer dress in a kimono.

Restyling: the start

When I opened the package that I received from Rebecca I was pleasantly surprised that it contained this bright summer dress with the floral embroidery. It was still new, barely worn, and it had gathered skirts. So I had a significant piece of fabric for my restyling project but not an idea yet. Initially, I wanted to go for the Kastrup top again because that pattern has several smaller pattern pieces. More, I could play with the placement of the embroidered border, which is something I like a lot. It was not until Diane, from ‘Dream. Cut. Sew.‘, posted her kimono made out of two scarfs that I had a lightbulb moment. I could restyle this dress in a kimono. I even had already the Venus Kimono pattern from ‘Sew This Pattern‘, so no extra costs were made for this challenge!

The Venus Kimono pattern

The Venus Kimono consists of 2 pattern pieces: the front and the back piece. I had the pattern already printed on A0 format so that was a huge timesaver. Although this kimono comes as a one size pattern with a relaxed fit you want to check the finished measurements. For Rebecca, the Venus kimono would have been far too big the way it is designed. So I shortened it with 14 cm and took about 1,5 cm off from the center front. These alterations were also necessary to make the pattern fit on the fabric I had available. I traced the customized pattern on to tissue paper because I wanted to keep the original pattern for a future kimono for myself.

Restyle: fitting the pattern on the dress

The first thing you do when you begin your recycle project is unpicking the seams. I started with the gathered skirt because this would give me the biggest fabric pieces. I also unpicked the hems as I needed every mm of fabric I could get. It takes a while to unpick all the overlocked seams and I was a surprised how much thread it gave.

After unpicking I gave the big pieces a good press to smooth the gathers. Then the most challenging part started, the pattern Tetris!

I put the pattern piece of the back, center back to fold line, on the front piece of the skirt. The pattern is designed with a center back seam but I cut off the 1,5 cm seam allowance. The arms were not covered but I marked this on the tissue paper and cut the pattern on this line. Also, you can see that the curve of the hem did not fit; so I adjusted that later when I hemmed it.

The front piece of the pattern went on the back piece of the skirt. Here, the length of piece fitted but for the arm, I had again to make a mark and cut the pattern piece.

To cut out the rest of the arm I lengthed the back and the front piece with other fabric fragments. Herefore I unpicked the bodice of the dress; also the shoulder straps.

Lengthen the front piece with the unpicked shoulder straps.

After lengthening the front piece with two fragment pieces of fabric the arm I was able to cut the arm piece of the front.

For the back, I worked the same way. First, I lengthened the pattern with fragments of the dress bodice. Here I kept the side seams of the bodice.

Then I put the pattern piece of the arm on the assembled fabric. You will notice that it didn’t fit totally. As I didn’t have any substantial piece of fabric anymore I shortened the front piece to make it match.

The assembled front piece with the shoulder straps and fragments of the bodice.Finished back sleeves.

The sewing process

After putting together the pieces of the kimono, sewing it was a piece of cake. Annie, from Sew this Pattern, has a very good sewalong on the website with clear instructions and pictures.
For the french seams, I used my 1/4 inch foot to have a guide and this helped a lot.

I finished the back neck line with bias binding because that is easier than a rolled hem.

Conclusion

I am super satisfied with this restyle project. It gave me a taste for more. I loved sewing a kimono, my first ever, and that also gave me a taste for more.
Thank you Amy and Pilar, for organizing this great challenge.

F I N A L L Y!
Finally, I finished my V9075 jumpsuit. Ever since I saw Beth’s, from SewDIY, linen version of this jumpsuit I wanted to make one for myself. That was in November 2015! After that I was I was always fascinated when I saw some V9075 jumpsuits on sewing blogs and social media. I even featured some in my eye-catchers posts, including Rachel’s and Alex’s versions. Last March 2017 I bought the pattern with a discount online and even though I had some suitable fabric in my stash I didn’t start sewing it.
Until, right before the Easter break, I had this sudden vision of using this charcoal fabric from my collection and I went for it. Needless to say that I am over the moon that I finally finished the V9075 jumpsuit!!

The V9075 jumpsuit pattern

Why am I so drawn to this pattern? Well, it ticks several of my favourite boxes: a jumpsuit, princess seams, pleats, culottes with very wide legs, and pockets. Did I mention the wide legs?

This is the third Voguepattern I sewed and now I’m familiar with this company pattern specifics. I know that the finished garment measures are indicated on the pattern pieces and this is very handy. Based on this finished measurements I cut out a 20 at the arm and bust and graded to a 22 at the waist and hips. To fit my belly I graded a bit at the princess seams and narrowed the pleats. This after I lengthened the body with 2,5 cm and the crotch with 4,5 cm.

Grading at the side and the princess seams.

Narrowing the pleats.

To be sure that the jumpsuit would fit I made a muslin. I didn’t want to end with any form of cameltoe! The lengthening was okay, I could raise my arms and didn’t feel uncomfortable sitting down.
The bodice was a little too wide under the arms but that was easy to modify.

The fabric

I used this cotton and silk blend I bought at Goldhawk Road in April 2017. It was the end of a bolt, with a separate piece attached. That made that I had more than 3 meters for a ‘good price’ like the seller said! I never sewed with this type of fabric before but it went smoothly.
The silk gives it a faint shine and the cotton some rigidity, which I like for this silhouette. Also, this fabric has a great wrinkle recovery. On the pictures here in this post, you see how the fabric behaves after I wore the jumpsuit for a day. I cycled, I had lunch, I sat at my desk to write reports, and I had a walk.

The sewing process

On the pattern cover, you read that this is a very easy sew. And it is! It only takes much time because there are a lot of seams and these legs are very long and very wide! In my case, the side seams of the legs are 90 cm and the hem of one leg is 137 cm.
The instructions asked for lining the bodice but I didn’t do it because the fabric is rather heavy. Also because I didn’t have suitable lining when I sewed this jumpsuit in our holiday house in Italy. Instead, I finished the neckline with a facing. Next time I will probably use a

bias binding finish.

The not so blind zipper! The neckline finish with facing and rainbow overlock thread!

The only thing I struggled with was the blind zipper. Again, being in Italy in the countryside, I had only access to a small haberdashery shop. I needed a blind zipper of 65 cm long, although I had a smaller one with me to show, the one I bought was not a proper blind zipper. The first tape went in easy, using my blind zipper foot, but the second tape was horror. The stitches were to close to the teeth so the fabric got caught in the puller. Aargh!! I had to redo it several times and ended with some hand stitching. So it is not perfect but good enough for me.

Conclusion

I am sew excited about my V9075 jumpsuit that I can’t hide it. I love, love wearing it. You have to do some arm exercises to get the zipper open but after a few times, you handle that like a pro.

Will I sew more V9075 jumpsuits? I hope I will.

The first outing of the V9075 jumpsuit was at the celebrations of the diamond wedding anniversary of my parents-in-law. Introducing the women of the family.

An eye-catcher is a person or a thing that attracts the attention

The online sewing community is very visual. So, every day I see heaps of sewing related images on social media and blogs. Some of them catch my eye because they make me think or they give me inspiration. Here, I want to share these eye-catchers with you.

Follow below what caught my eye the last months:

Sara’s cape

Sewing a cape for myself is one of my secret wishes. I even don’t know if it would be something that would suit me but I like the shape of it. Also, I think it would very wearable here in Belgium as an in-between-seasons coat. Definitely something my wardrobe is lacking as made clear by Me-Made-May ’18. So I was immediately taken by Sara’s beautiful version of the Woodland Stroll Cape from Oliver + s. This pattern somehow escaped me but it is definitely on my sewing list now.

Martina’s refashioned sweater

The Annual Restyling Exchange of Amy and Pilar is running to its end. With the big reveal weekend coming the 22nd, 23rd, & 24th of June. The sweater Martina refashioned is not for the restyling exchange but something she made for herself. She made a new Sewhouse 7 Toastersweater #1 out of two old sweaters she didn’t wear anymore. I find this a brilliant idea and very inspiring.

Izzy’s pencil skirt

I think we, sewists, all have been there, at least I have. You have some leftover fabric from a sewing project and you have this particular idea of what to sew from it. Then you don’t have enough! Izzy resolved this in a very creative way. For a pencil skirt, she added a lace band and cut out the bottom section the other way. A very clever idea with a stylish result!

The blouse from @fragmentid

Hacks or tweaks do not have to be complicated. @fragmentid lengthened the sleeves of this Burda blouse and finished the hem with gathers. She said that she didn’t wear it with the original elbow length sleeves. Again a brilliant idea with a stylish outcome. Very inspiring.

Giorgia’s African Wax culottes

Giorgia just combined two of my favourite things: African Wax print and culottes. A golden combination. I already made the Velo Culottes in African Wax but seeing this version of Giorgia makes me want to sew several more.

Tilda Swinton by Tim Walker

Wow! This picture of Tilda Swinton by Tim Walker is a real eye-catcher, isn’t it? When it popped up in my IG-feed (@the_red_list) I couldn’t stop looking at it. The movement of the fabric is just mesmerizing. I wished I could make garments like that!

I’ve just finished my third Me-Made-May and I’m feeling happy and a little sad at the same time. Happy because I managed to wear me-mades every single day of May 2018. A little sad because it’s over now and I have to wait another year for a new Me-Made-May!

Standing in front of Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror on day 30 of Me-Made-May ’18.

Me-Made-May ’18: Day 19-Day 31

I already showed my first 18 wears of MMMay’18 before, below you see my 13 last wears (blog post linked where the me-mades have been blogged).

The Me-Made-May challenge

Me-Made-May is all about setting a personal challenge regarding your me-mades, you can read all about this on Zoe’s blog. So the big question is: “Did I reach my challenge?”

I wore at least one me-made garment every day.

I wore every garment only once; so I had no repeats!

I wore 12 garments I didn’t wear last May 2017. So I reached my challenge here as I pledged to wear at least 10 garments I didn’t wear last year. I made 3 new garments this month.

All my combinations of two garments were different than the previous years.

Was it hard? No, not really. After nearly 5 years of sewing clothes for myself I have a considerable wardrobe to go through each morning and make a selection. Also, a bonus was the nice weather we had here in Belgium because I have a lot of summery clothes.
So it wasn’t hard, although I have to confess that towards the end of the month I would have loved to wear something I already wore this month.

Reflections

First of all, I am proud of myself because I’m able to wear 31 different garments that were self-made and appropriate to the situation, in a row. I didn’t give this feeling a lot of consideration the previous years.
Still, there are some serious gaps in my me-made wardrobe. Where are thou: solid tops? trousers? bras? in-between-seasons coat? And I sound like a broken record here.
So, I am going to make that my challenge for the coming year: focus on sewing these types of garments.

See you at Me-Made-May 2019!

PS. An enormous thanks to my husband who took all the photos this month. I love you, baby.